Sorry to start another one of these but the articles comparing these two companies were from at least 2 years ago. a lot can change in two years. I'm currently using shaw litespeed internet which sucks! It is very slow in my area and keeps on disonnecting. It is very unreliable. I'm thinking of switching to telus since they have a deal for a free dell laptop (for my mom). I'm not worried about the contract itself but i dont want to get locked in to a company if it offers crappy internet. I've heard the internet is slower with telus and their service is bad (i don't know if these have changed over the last few years). Should I go with Shaw and Telus? How bout rogers, should i even consider them since i dont know anyone who uses it. BUT the bottom line is that I just want fast internet that works!

All I can give you are my experiences
I've had Shaw adsl, and it's worked fine. Troubleshooting wasn't much of a problem.
Upgraded to Nitro-no problem, tech came out and swapped modems, didn't cost me a bean. Telus? well, the techs there were helpful, and we had the basic highspeed, with the D-Link modem. Kinda troublesome. Upgraded to wireless router/modem
(siemens) . better, less trouble, but if you have one of the original Airport base stations, you won't need it anymore. Works with Airport Express (my mom has telus)

We tried Telus first. I found them to be very unknowledgeable about Mac installs. Very PC-centric. Plus we asked for help and waited a year (!) for no one to come, so we finally returned the equipment. We called Shaw, who came on a Sunday even, set it up no problem and it's been working fine ever since. And that's my story.

We have Shaw for TV, Internet and phone. It's always been reliable, and if something goes wrong, they will take an interest and get it fixed. No problems with Mac knowledge of their tech people.

Telus, on the other hand, was awful when we got rid of them 3 years ago, who knows if they've become better or worse. We had serious, critical problems with both telephone and ADSL service, and there was nothing that could be dignified with the name "service" in their response. The few competent tech people that were left did fine, but try getting through the layers of idiots to reach them.

In summary, I wouldn't go back to Telus if they were the last ISP on earth - I'd just do without email and revert to scratching messages on clay tablets.

__________________
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a ripe banana.

We've used Telus, Shaw, and Rogers and we've never really had any problems with them.

In Prince George we used Shaw for internet and we found the speed very fast and there wasn't too much of a slow down during peak hours, but this was back in 2000 so I'm not too sure how many people were on it at that time. The tech person that came out to the house to 'setup' things was reasonably helpful, but was not able or willing to do anything with our router. That was not a problem as I was able to figure it out quite easily. This was back when we were using 2 PCs and I cannot remember the large price tag for the 4-port wired router...or, I'm not willing to admit what we paid!

We moved to Guelph and used Rogers with our PCs and eventually with a Mac and we had no problems. Speed was consistent, but did slow down during peak times.

We also used Shaw when we were in North Vancouver and we didn't have any problems. This was with 2 Macs. The tech person did need my help to find the System Preferences to check if the IP Address had come through.

We moved from North Vancouver to Cranbrook and I was going to go with Shaw, but they wanted $10 to move our account. I was told that if I didn't pay the $10, then I would lose my Shaw e-mail accounts, of which we had none. He questioned me if I thought it was worth it and I had questioned him if it was worth losing a customer who had been paying full price for the $10.

So, we used the Telus ADSL service for a little over a year and I found it worked well with our wireless router and I think I only needed to call them once, which was to get it setup through some web address.

When we moved to a different place in Cranbrook we ended up getting Shaw as my wife wasn't too pleased with just 2 relatively clear channels. She had been away at school for most of the previous year and I didn't really care about watching TV. So, we've had Shaw for a couple more years and there have been no problems. We did have some problems with our HD box and I called Shaw many, many times and they were always very helpful and, eventually, replaced our HD box and I haven't needed to call them since.

Since I've had the most contact with the Shaw customer service people I can say, in my opinion, that they've been friendly and helpful. Telus people have been fine ever since their strike or lockout ended. I had a lot of problems with their 'scab' labour or management or whomever it was that was supposed to update my address. They were able to move my service, but were not able to send my bill to the right place. I thought that was really, really funny.

My father hates Telus and would have nothing to do with them if he had a bit better choice. He has found them to be liars or extremely poorly informed and not helpful at all. He has their ADSL and telephone and long distance and several calling features including at least one distinctive ringer. So, he's got a 'whack load' of services with them.

wow thanks for all the responses. seems like everyone likes shaw. but here in richmond, BC, there are way too many people using shaw and i never get the speed i need (which is not a lot btw). I dont really care about service since i rarely call in. I just want zippy internet that can download youtube videos quickly and maybe a few movies. Is telus internet slower than shaw's internet? and is it noticeable, be it through normal use or downloading songs, setups, and videos? if i can download things at 300kb/s i would be pretty happy already since i'm used to 20kb/s with shaw lite speed haha. if telus isn't that much slower than shaw, i might get telus since it comes with a dell laptop. so my question again is: is telus' vs shaw's speed difference noticeable? thanks again!

But, just as an aside, it's nice that you're not worried about a three-year contract. You *do* realize, of course, that if you don't like Telus, they'll charge you a hefty amount to buy out the remainder of the contract *and* may charge you for that crappy laptop for your mom since it was given under the assumption that the contract would end in three years.

Anyhoo... .

The service works well, though. It's just when you have to talk to a human that things blow up.

My last problem?

My old modem finally died. I called Telus to simply find out which modems they support. Got someone in the Phillipines who is obviously reading from a prepared script. She just couldn't understand what 'which modems does Telus support' means. But she did tell me for $1 less per month, I could go to 'extreme'.

"Fine. I'll take that. Which modems does Telus support?"

"We'll give you a Siemans gateway."

"I don't want a Siemans because I don't need a gateway. I just need a wired modem for my good wireless router."

[Uncomfortable silence and some rattling of papers] "Um... I have to send you the Siemans."

"No. You don't. Send me the Thompson SmartTouch or just tell me which modems Telus supports."

"Um... I have to send you a Siemans. It'll be free?"

"Not the SmartTouch? I can not get the SmartTouch, even though I specifically asked for it?"

"Um... with that special package, it's the Siemans."

"Why can't I get the SmartTouch?"

[Uncomfortable silence and then an anxious sigh] "Um... m'am... I can send you the Siemans, OK?"

"Fine, fine, fine. The modem's free and I want you to put in the records that I specifically asked for the SmartTouch."

[Sigh of relief] "Yes. Thank you m'am."

The Siemans sucks (as expected). And then I get hit with a $105.50 charge on my next bill. So I call Telus up. Put on hold for 20 minutes and then the line goes dead. Screw it. Maybe it's some bizarre mistake and let's see what happens next bill.

Next bill: $105.50 + late charges. I call up Telus.

"What's the $105.50 about? Oh, and I hate the Siemans."

"Oh. *That's* a charge we put on for the modem. It'll come off in three billing cycles."

"Wait. You guys expected me to pay you $105.50 for a 'free' modem that I specifically told you I didn't want? A charge that I was never told about nor would I have accepted if I'd been told? No. Not gonna happen."

"Well... you don't have to pay the $105.50. But you'll get hit with late charges and it'll appear on your credit that you haven't kept up to date on payments."

"No. That's not going to happen. Put me through to your Customer Loyalty and Retention people. And I hate that Siemans modem."

"Sure!"

[Ten minute wait. The line goes dead.}

I wait until the next bill. Theoretically that should be the third billing cycle. The $105.50 is still on it (with late charges). I *loathe* my Siemans by now and am going to demand the SmartTouch. So I phone them up again.

I get someone in the Phillipines again. I immediately hang up.

The next day, I get someone who actually is in Canada.

"Honey. What's your name."

"Karen."

"OK, Karen. Here's the deal: I want you to take back the crappy Siemans and give me a SmartTouch or a reasonable, technical explanation why I can't get a SmartTouch. As a minimum - a list of modems Telus supports. I want you to also explain this $105.50 charge and why I'm suppose to give Telus that money for three months. Because, Karen, if this doesn't go well right now right this call right this second, I will make your work day the shittiest day at Telus you've ever had. 'K?"

"Keep the Siemans. I'll send you a SmartTouch. Let me see about the $105.50... ah... success. You were charged $70 for an installation charge and $30 for that month's service. Why would we do that?"

"I don't know. I don't work for the company. So... it's not Telus' policy to require full payment of a modem in advance and then have the money returned as a credit."

"No. Never did that."

"Is the person I talked to listed in my file?"

"Yeah."

"Tell your supervisor to fire him - least of all because he out and out lied to me. So. Karen. What are you going to do for me today?"

"I'm going to credit you the $105.50 in full. I'm going to send you a SmartTouch modem, too. Keep the Siemans for free."

"But, Karen, I haven't *paid* the $105.50 so you can't credit it to me."

"Let's just say I credited you $105.50 and leave it at that. And you have the Siemans you can use as backup if you ever have a problem with the SmartTouch which will get to you in the next three days."

"Good, Karen. Very good."

That cost me at least 50 minutes of hold over three months, late charges on $105.50 for an installation charge (that never happened. Getting mailed a Siemans modem is *not* 'installation'), having chats with useless reps reading scripts in the Phillipines - including a techie who simply told me he doesn't have a clue what to do on a Mac and then proceeded to tell me, in detail, exactly what to do for Windows Vista.

The only reason why I still have them (and last year was the only time in five years I've used Telus I've had a contract and I'm never going to do *that* again) is that I completely lucked out on my email address and I'll *never* get it for Shaw and it's highly doubtful I'd ever get it with another ISP. And I have an incredible VOiP deal of $20 a month and the VOiP company dissuades the use of cable internet because of package drops depending on traffic loads.

But, like I said, the service is reliable and good in the Commercial Drive area. But the customer service generally completely sucks and with this cost-cutting measure of having a call centre in the Phillipines, it ain't gettin' better.

Shaw has no contracts (so you don't get caught in that net), all the reps and technical support people are in Vancouver and the prices are on par with Telus. You already know what the downside is.

If it costs just a few more $$ to upgrade Shaw from litespeed, for God's sake, do it for a couple of months before racing into the contractual quagmire that is Telus. And forget the laptop for Mom. It simply isn't worth it.